Story+1985-06-12+Rotterdam,+The+Netherlands

“Hello (crowd cheers) yeah…ah, almost hurt myself, wait a minute (chuckles) let’s do (?) ready?...well, alright…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Darlington County”**

“About twenty miles…south of the town I grew up in…they brought in legalizing gambling…to try and help out the economy…now there are big golden casinos a block in from the projects…and gangs down there fighting for control…this is “Atlantic City”…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Atlantic City”**

“Thanks…I grew up in this, uh…this real small town…my old man used to come home from work…and he’d go right into the kitchen and he’d sit down at the kitchen table and my mother would bring him his dinner and he’d sit there all night long…just smoking a cigarette, drinking beer in the dark…and my mom’d sit in the living room and watch TV…and, uh, he used to lock up the front door so that me and my sister would have to come in around the side so he’d know what time we were coming in…and if he was sitting there too long and you were coming in too late, sometimes you were better off waiting until the next morning…so I used to keep this sleeping bag…stashed away under my friend’s porch and, uh, if it got too late, I’d go and pull it out and I’d sleep on his porch or I’d sleep in a friend of mine’s car and let my dad have a chance to sleep, sleep it off a little bit…and, uh, now when I go home, those places where I used to sleep seem more like they were my home than my…than my house did at the time…this song is, uh…is everybody needs someplace to go on those nights when they can’t go home (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “The River”**

“(After the sing-along) That’s good (chuckles)…now, this is a song about…old times (crowd cheers) it’s kind of nostalgic or sentimental, it’s, uh…how many folks we got there over thirty years old tonight? (some cheers) me, right? (snickers) I’m a little bit over thirty…well, now, the Big Man, he’s got many more old times than I have (crowd cheers) but as you can see, he has maintained every inch of his youthful beauty (crowd cheers) there’s no doubt about it …but like…but this song is kind of about how you’re out in a bar and it’s Friday night and somebody always comes up to you and says, uh…”Hey, remember me? Yeah, we went to high school together… Yeah, high school, remember, no, the guy, I’m the guy, the guy that dumped the pizza pie on your shirt in study hall, yeah, that’s me, that’s me,” then you go “Oh, how you doing, alright”… everybody always trying to tell you what a great time you had in high school…but I remember high school…it stinks! (crowd cheers) I didn’t like no high school…I’m still glad I don’t have to do no homework! (crowd cheers) but in high school I was only interested in two things…one was the guitar…and the other one was…you know, that one – the one everybody’s interested in…but the only one I got good at was the guitar, you see…that’s howcome the shows are so long ‘cause the other thing happens so fast! (laughs from the crowd) but I’m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise – no, no, no, I’m married now, I gotta, I gotta behave and stuff…you gotta be good when you get married…can’t be fooling around all the time (chuckles) anyway… this is a song about…how all things must pass…and it ain’t nothing but glory days…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Glory Days”**

“(Crowd sings the “Olé”-football chant) I don’t know what that is but I like it, I like it…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “The Promised Land”**

“Alright…thanks, thanks…this next song, this is, uh…I was living in California for a while…and uh…I was thinking back to the town where I grew up in…and I remember when I was about sixteen, seventeen years old, how much I hated the place, swore if I ever got out, I’d never go back…said I’d never miss anything that was there…and uh, when I was about nineteen, I got to go out on the road…and travel a lot…and for a long time I didn’t, I never missed any of…never wondered what my friends were doing, never missed my folks for a long time…and uh, it was like that for, I felt like that for a long time…and as I got older, I started to come home and I’d get in my car and I’d drive down the streets that I grew up on and uh…drive past my old houses that I grew up in…and find my old friends and see what had become of their lives…and I realized that the place that you’re born and you’re raised, no matter what you become or where you go, never leaves you, it always stays in your blood somewhere, always stays in your heart somewhere…and, uh, I guess, uh, when I was a kid, I was afraid of belonging to something (?) if you belong to something, it means that you got some responsibility to it…and uh…I guess this is a song about responsibility to the place that you live…I know where I’m from there’s things I’m proud of about my country and there’s things that I’m very ashamed of…and uh…I guess you gotta live with both of them…anyway, this is…(speaks Dutch, saying “from my hometown to your hometown”) (crowd cheers) from my hometown to your hometown…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “My Hometown”**

“(After the sing-along) Are you talking to me? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, middle of “Thunder Road”**

“Danke…thank you…we’re gonna take a short break and then we’re gonna be right back (crowd cheers) to lay some intensive rocking on you…so we’ll see you in a little while, ok? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, after “Thunder Road”**

“Well, sometimes I feel…I get feeling so lonely…and I get so downhearted that I wanna reach out…for a little help…and I just wanna say to somebody somewhere…hey, baby…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, towards the end of “Dancing in the Dark”**

“Yeah, let’s hear it for my dance partner (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, after “Dancing in the Dark”**

“I remember…my old man always calling me back to sit down with me in the kitchen…and it always seemed like the only time…that he’d wanna talk to me…was when he’d had a little too much to drink…he’d always seem so angry…that I was just having a little fun …and he’d sit there at night and he’d think about all the things that he wasn’t ever gonna have…until he’d get me thinking like that too …and then I’d lay up in bed…I’d be staring at the ceiling…just thinking…and I can remember feeling…like if something didn’t happen…I can remember feeling like someday I was just gonna… someday I was just gonna…I was just gonna…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “I’m on Fire”**

“Ladies and gentlemen...children of all ages...and everybody else that’s out there…it’s now time to introduce…the members of the E Street Band (crowd cheers) that’s right...beginning, to my left to the stage… the smartest man in show business...a man who gave up a scholarship to Yale University, he told ‘em they could kiss his ass, to join the European tour with the E Street Band...on the piano, the distinguished Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers)(?) next, on the vocals, an alumni of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) next, on the drums, the man that puts the heat in the beat to get you moving your feet and out of your seat, the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) next, on the organ, the most mysterious man in the entertainment industry, Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) and then the gentleman that puts the bass in your face, that brings you the thunder from down under, Mr. Garry W. Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) and now the gentleman…what can I say? A man as sweet as life itself, the man with the secrets in the street, Mr. Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) and now…last but not least... how can I say it?...except in this corner, weighing in at 265 pounds, the handsomest man, the biggest man you’ve ever seen (crowd cheers) ladies and gentlemen, gimme a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E, what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) Clarence “Big Man” Clemons on the saxophone...”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Rosalita”**

“Thank you…thanks…oh…I’d like to just take a moment and thank everyone for coming down to the show here tonight in Rotterdam, thank you very much (crowd cheers) I know, I know that some of you travelled a long distance and I want youse to know we appreciate it…and uh…I’d also like to thank everyone who has supported our band over the last ten years here in Holland (crowd cheers) I’d like to thank Peter and all the people in the fan club and …I just want you to know that…that we appreciate it…this is, uh…in 1976, I guess, I was travelling through the States, we were on the “Born to Run”-tour and, uh, we were in Memphis and it was the first time we’d ever played in Memphis, we played in a small auditorium…and it was late at night after the show and me and my guitarist Steve at the time (crowd cheers) he sends you all his best regards…uh, we decided we wanted to get something to eat and so we called up a taxi company and a taxi came down and we said we wanted to eat someplace outside of town where it’d be quiet…and he said “Well, I know a place right out by Elvis’ house” and we said “Oh, you know where Elvis lives?” he says “Yeah,” we said “Well, take us there right now”…so it was about 3.30 in the morning and we pulled up outside of Elvis’ and I got outside of the cab and I stood in front of those gates that had the big guitar players on ‘em and I looked up the driveway and I could see a small light on in a second story window and I decided that Elvis must be up reading and, uh, I jumped over the wall and I started to run up the driveway towards the house and…I guess, I guess now I think it was kind of a stupid thing to do because I hate it when people do it at my house (chuckles) (crowd cheers) but anyway, I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth and I ran up the driveway and I went to knock on the door…and two guards came out and they asked me what I wanted and I said “Is Elvis home?” and they said “No, he’s in Lake Tahoe” so I said “You see, I’m a guitar player too and I got a band, we just played in town, and I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek” and they’re going “Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure” (chuckles) they didn’t believe me (chuckles) and they took me, uh, they took me by the arm and they put me back out in the street so…but I used to, I used to wonder what I would have said to him if I’d had a chance to, to meet him…I don’t know what I would have said…but I remember when a friend of mine called and said that he died, it was hard to understand how somebody who had taken away so many people’s loneliness could’ve ended up so lonely…but uh, anyway…this is wishing to all of you the best of everything (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”**

“Now we begin (crowd cheers)…”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Ramrod”**

“Are you tired yet? (crowd: “No”) then let’s go… (…) You guys ought to join the band now (crowd cheers) you sound good…how’s everybody doing way in the back there? (crowd cheers) how are you guys up here in the grandstand? (crowd cheers) now, how’s everybody doing way up over there? (crowd cheers) are you alright way up there? (crowd cheers) now, how’s everybody down on the dance floor? (crowd cheers) alright…now, before I go…there’s just one thing I gotta know…I mean before I go …there’s one question that I need an answer to…and what I wanna know is…what I came all the way over here to find out is…what I wanna know is…I mean what I came all the way over here to find out is…I mean what I have to know is…I mean what I wanna know is…I mean what I have to know is (crowd cheers) there’s just one thing I gotta know is (crowd cheers) is, is…Do you love me?...”
 * 12.06.85 Rotterdam, Holland, intro to “Twist and Shout”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//